Other News

The state clemency board will recommend that Gov. Chris Gregoire not commute the sentence of a juvenile killer. Barry Massey was just 13 years old when he participated in a brutal murder. The board's 3-2 vote Thursday night reverses a previous clemency board recommendation that he should be let free.

The conflict continues over an upcoming pay raise for sheriff's deputies in King County. Executive Dow Constantine has rejected a proposal from the Police Officers Guild to cut their pay temporarily. He says their offer would have cost more than it saved.

Ten-dollar gate fees at state parks and 100,000 more Washingtonians without health insurance. Those are just two examples of how Governor Christine Gregoire proposes to close a $4.6 billion budget shortfall with her budget released Wednesday.

The Murray Morgan bridge spanning Tacoma's Thea Foss Waterway can no longer be raised to allow tall ships to pass beneath it. City of Tacoma spokesman Rob McNair-Huff says copper wire thieves broke into the bridge's mechanical room and ripped out the wires from the power and control panel. They also damaged the motors and controls.

Governor Chris Gregoire is proposing to consolidate 12 state agencies and in the process eliminate 125 jobs. It’s part of her plan to reduce the size and, what she calls, “complexity” of Washington state government. The state faces a $4.6 billion gap between anticipated revenues and spending in the next two year budget.

If your home has smoke detectors, that’s an important safety step. Starting in January, new homes, and existing homes that are sold, also need to have a carbon monoxide detector. A new state law requires the sensors to prevent accidental poisonings.

Washington gets a top grade for being ready to handle disasters. A new study ranks the state among the most adept a wide variety of public health threats, from flood response, handling disease outbreak, and reacting to chemical spills, among other emergencies. But the report warns gains in emergency preparedness could be lost to budget cuts.

You may be drying out from the weekend rain storms. But city officials in Seattle are thinking about snow. They’re learning lessons from the snowstorm in November that turned roads into ice rinks and made for paralyzing commutes.